Joint structure for folding oxford eyeglasses



Oct. 30, 1934. v TANASSO ET AL JOINT STRUCTURE FOR FOLDING OXFORD EYEGLASSES Filed Sept. 29, 1955 INVENTORS. zceniggmzssad'fimzd fiueflg A TTORNEY 1 40 lary distance Patented Got. 30, 1934 JOKN'E FQLDZING OXFORD EYEGLASSES Vincent 'Eanasso, Harriscn, and Jacob J. Pomerans, Brooklyn, N. Y.

, Application Qcpteinber 29, 1933, Serial Ne. 691,494 4 Claims. (Cl. 88-4.4)

This invention relates to improvements in eyeglasses; and the invention has reference, more particularly, to a novel joint structure especially adapted for folding Oxford eye-glasses.

i This invention has for its principal objectto provide a novel joint structure adapted to be disposed between the lens rims and bridge member of Oxford eye-glass frames to operatively interconnect these parts together. Another object is 310 to provide a joint structure having a novel form of tapered butt adapted to be secured to the periphery of a lens rim so that its top side or margin. is tangent to the circumference of the latter, butt being capable of attachment to rims 1 5 of various materials, such as metallic rims, or

aylonite, shell or rims of similar material, by soldering, cementing, riveting or in any other suitable manner. Another object is to provide a joint structure having, in pivoted connectionwith 29 the tapered butt, a tapered hinge yoke connected with a terminal portion of the bridge member, and being of such conformation that its top side or margin is normally tangent to the topside or margin of said butt at one end and substantially merges with the top plane of the bridge member at its other end, so as to provide, with respect to the joint structure as a whole; a substantially smooth and uninterrupted contour merging with the circumference of therim at one end and with said bridge member at the other end.

A further object of this invention is to provide a joint structure of the kind above mentioned in which the parts are of metal, and wherein the butt and hinge yoke are providedat their upper meeting margins with cooperative stopshoulders to determine their normal aligned relation, and which by reason of the metal to metal engagement afforded thereby, are strongly resistant to wear and distortion, so that thepupiof the lenses is maintained against undesired alteration.

Other objects of this invention, not at this time more particularly enumerated, will be clearly understood from the following detailed description of the same. i

An illustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which: i i Fig. 1 is a front face elevation of a pair of the novel joint structures according to this invention as operatively connected between the ends of the bridge member of an eye-glass frame and the lens rims thereof, the latter being shown in part and in dotted outline.

Fig. 2 is a front face elevation of the novel joint structure per se, drawn on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the same; Fig. 4 is a bottom plan View of the same; and Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical section through the same.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the butt member of the joint structure; and Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the yoke member of the joint structure.

8 and 9 are respectively front face elevations of somewhat modified forms of the novel joint structure.

Similar characters of reference are employed in the above-described views, to indicate correspending parts.

In the drawing, the reference character 10 indicates the butt member of the novel joint structure; the same comprising tapered main body, preferably made of metallic material, having a longitudinally concave or arcuate under sulface ll to conform to the circumferential curvature of a lens rim of an eyeglass frame to which the same is to be applied, such lens rims being indicated by broken lines at 12 in Fig. 1. At its inner end said butt member is provided with a transverse hinge knuckle 13 provided with an opening or chamber 14 extending therethrough; also at the inner end of said so butt member and along the top of said hinge knuckle there is provided an upwardly ofi-set transverse stop shoulder 15. The top surface 16 of said butt member inclines downwardly and outwardly in converging relation to said arcuate under surface 11, thereby giving the butt member the tapered form by which it is characterized, so that when the butt member is applied and secured to the circumference of a lens rim (as 12), the top surface 16 thereof extends tangentially from the rim periphery.

Adapted for pivotal connection with said butt member is a yoke member 17 also preferably made of metallic material which is provided at its inner end with lateral spaced perforate hinge ears 18 arranged to straddle the hinge knuckle 13 of said butt member 10. Above the projecting portions of said hinge ears-l8 said yoke member is provided with an upwardly off-set transverse stop shoulder 19, which, when the yoke member is in operative pivotal connection with the butt member, cooperates with the stop shoulder 15 ofthe latter to determine the normal aligned relation of the yoke member to the butt member, in which relation the top surface 20 of the former is with top surface 16 of the latter, thus presenting a smooth uninterrupted plane surface at the top of the joint structure as a whole free: end to end thereof. When the hinge cars 10 of the yoke member are operatively asbutt member, a pivotal member sembled relative to the hinge knuckle 13 of the 21, such as a rivet, screw or like element, is passed therethrough to thereby pivotally connect these parts together. If desired a coil spring 22 may be arranged within the opening or chamber 14 of the hinge knuckle 13 about the pivotal member 1; one end or arm 23 of said spring being suitably secured to the butt member and the other end or arm 24 thereof to the yoke member 17, whereby these parts are yieldingly retained in normal extended position as determined by the mutual engagement of their stop shoulders and 19. In some types of eye-glass frames the spring 22 may be omitted, especially in constructions wherein a resilient bridge member is employed, the tension of which, when the frame is spread and applied to the nose of a wearer thereof, will tend to maintain the joint structures in extended positions as determined by the mutual engagement of butt and yoke stop shoulders 15 and 19. In preferred form, the yoke member 17 is of hollow tapered construction, with its under wall or surface 25 converging outwardly toward its top wall or surface 20, but so as to leave at its outer end an opening 26 for the insertion thereinto of an end portion of a bridge member 27 (see Fig. l), the latter being suitably anchored in secured relation to the yoke member. Simpler modified forms of the yoke member are shown in Figs. 8 and 9 of the drawing. In the form thereof shown in Fig. 8, the yoke member 17 is constructed as an integral part of the bridge member 27, but

- retains, in this form, substantially the same arrangement or" hinge ears l8 and stop shoulder 19 for cooperation with the butt member 10 in the manner above described. In the form of yoke member shown in Fig. 9, the same comprises a ,solid tapered body 1'7" having the hinge ears 18 and stop shoulder 19, but being provided at its outer end portion with a countersunk seat 28 (which may be located at either its under or top side) to receive the end portion of the bridge member 27; the latter being secured to the yoke member in any suitable manner, as by the rivets 29, by other mechanical fastening or by soldering. It will be obvious from the above description, that the present invention provides a very sim- .ple, neat and efficient joint structure per se; the same being adapted to be made up in quantities ready for assembly with the lens rims of eyeglass frames, and capable of being mounted upon and secured to lens rims of any material desired in a given case. If applied to metallic lens rims,

" the butt member of the joint structure may be soldered thereto; if applied to lens rims of other materials, the butt member may be riveted thereto or fastened thereto by any other suitable means.

The novel joint structure when applied to lens rims for connecting the latter to a bridge member of an eye-glass frame, is of very neat and trim appearance, and by reason of its uninter- -upted top contour, and

gracefully and smoothly with the contours of rims and bridge member, as will be appreciated from an. inspection of Fig. l of the drawing.

Having described our invention, we claim: 1. A joint structure for the purposes described, comprising a solid butt member having a transversely perforate hinge knuckle at its inner end,

the tapered form of its. butt and yoke members, will appear to merge the body of said butt member being tapered toward its outer end and having an arcuate seating surface at its underside substantially corresponding to the width of and adapted to engage the periphery of a lens rim to which it is to be applied and secured, and a bridge supporting yoke member having hinge ears cooperative with said butt member hinge knuckle for pivotal connection therewith.

2. A joint structure for the purposes described, comprising a solid butt member having a transversely perforate hinge knuckle at its inner end and a transverse stop shoulder formed by the inner extremity of said butt member offset above said knuckle, the body of said butt member being tapered toward its outer end and having an arcuate seating surface at its underside substantially corresponding to the width of and adapted to engage the periphery of a lens rim to which it is to be applied and secured, a bridge supporting yoke member having hinge ears cooperative with said butt member hinge knuckle for pivotal connection therewith, and said yoke member having a transverse stop shoulder offset above said ears adapted'to cooperate with said butt member stop shoulder, said butt member stop shoulder and said yoke member stop shoulder being of equal height, whereby the top planes of said butt member and yoke member are flush one with the other.

3. A joint structure for the purposes described, comprising a solid butt member having a transversely perforate hinge knuckle at its inner end and a transverse stop shoulder formed by the inner extremity of said butt member offset above said knuckle, the body of said butt member being tapered toward its outer end and having an arcuate seating surface at its underside substantially corresponding to the width of and adapted to engage the periphery of a lens rim to which it is to be applied and'secured, a bridge supporting yoke member having hinge ears cooperative with said butt member hinge knuckle for pivotal connection therewith, said yoke member having a transverse stop shoulder offset above said ears adapted to cooperate with said butt member stop shoulder, said butt member stop shoulder and said yoke member stop shoulder being of equal height, whereby the top planes of said butt member and yoke member are flush one with the other and spring means foryieldin-gly holding said butt and yoke members in extended aligned relation as determined by the mutual engagement of their stop shoulders.

4. A joint structure for'thepurposes described, comprising a butt member having a hinge knuckle at its inner end, the body of said butt member having 'at'its underside an arcuate seating surface-substantially corresponding in width to the width of and adapted to engage the periphery of a lens rim to which it is to be applied and secured. said butt member body having a downwardly and outwardly inclined top side convergent to the under side thereof whereby it extends tangentially to the periphery of a lens rimto which the butt member is applied and secured, and a bridge supporting yoke member having hinge ears cooperative with said butt member hinge knucklefor pivotal connection therewith.

VINCENT TANASSO. JACOB J. POEEERANZ. 

